South Africa Domestic Season 2011/12

The season is about to start as soon as Friday with the Warriors in action in CLT20 and the Cobras in action on Saturday.

Just to fill in on the off-season where maybe go into detail later but the SA emerging side faired pretty decently and there was some strong individual performances notably Reeza Hendricks with the bat and a few decent bowling perfromances.

The 'A' side had a brief triangular in Zim and it was disappointing in a way in that a lot of the Aus & Saf players were in full off-season and hadn't had a lot of cricket. Saf & Aus were in the final but South Africa lost 2 close matches to Aus and one being in the final.

The SA u19 side beat ENG 4-2 in England and there is some great talent in the side. There will be a large group getting franchise contracts as well when the time is right and its not easy with the countries talent being split into 6 squads. Also good to see a key player like Calvin Savage (bowling all-rounder) coming back from a serious stress facture at such a young age and bowling steadily and within himself as a first change bowler. 11 of the 15 players will be available for next years u19 WC in Brisbane as well.

The SuperSport 4-day series kicks off at the end of the month as well and the fixtures are up. Another great change in the SA domestic structures is that our one-day cricket is 50 overs now and that really will be beneficial to the fringe and young cricketers aspiring to play on the international scene.

There also has been changes in the domestic squads and a few coach changes and I will put it up.

The international season sees a disappointingly short Australian tour (especially tests) and the Sri Lankans visiting over the festive period.

There haven't been many changes, Zondeki is the major release and a few of the youngsters like Vallie, Piedt, Rippon and Hendricks will have more responsibilty this season. Kallis and Boucher have rejoined the club. Winners of both the 4-day comps and T20.

With Russell Domingo joining the SA set-up, Piet Botha is now the head coach after being assistant coach to Domingo. He played for both Border and Gauteng and was a steady left-arm swing bowler who put in great service on the domestic circuit.

Kallis and Boucher have moved back to the Cobras. Once again not many changes, David White and Aya Gqamane have been given a rookie contracts and Kelly Smuts will be given more responsibility. Zondeki may rejoin the club after his release from Cobras. They were losing finalists in last seasons T20.

How do you rate that Obus Pienaar guy who has had some impressive performances in under comps? Will he make it for the Proteas? What happened to guys like Ackerman and Richards who they were raving about before the last under 19 comp?

Another great change in the SA domestic structures is that our one-day cricket is 50 overs now and that really will be beneficial to the fringe and young cricketers aspiring to play on the international scene.

Doing some reading on SA cricket atm I was a bit surprised by this change but agree that its for the good.
GL to cobras in both domestic and internationals

Originally Posted by Bun

Darn, at his age, I didn't know one needed to insert and ejaculate manship in womanship to create childship!

The club is still in major transition and are trying to give some youth a chance. The have brought back Frylinck from the Lions and have brought in two fast bowlers from Cobras (WP) amateur ranks in Dane Paterson & Chad Fortune. They have lost their senior quick in Friend to the Knights. They will target the T20 as they have signed both Chris Gayle and Shaun Tait and will hope to help other seniors in the Dolphins ranks to bring along the youth.

How do you rate that Obus Pienaar guy who has had some impressive performances in under comps? Will he make it for the Proteas? What happened to guys like Ackerman and Richards who they were raving about before the last under 19 comp?

Obus Pienaar is a good player, hard-hitting batting all-rounder but needs to find his way into a strong Knights batting line-up first. Was part of the Emerging side recently.

Ackermann in particular scored loads of runs but hasn't been able to kick-on. In fact his fellow player from the same school, same provincial u19 team and same SA u19 side in David White is ahead of him now.

The current SA u19 crop and particularly fast bowlers below have very good pedigree and are playing amateur cricket while still at school. Some players just out of school like Quinton DeKock has a contract with the Lions already and Cloete has a contract with the Knights. Chad Fortune has a rookie with Dolphins and Rafferty & Olivier have rookies with the Knights. Those 3 clubs don't mind giving youth just out of school a chance.

The Cobras, Warriors and Titans are normaly the clubs where you have to do a bit of an apprenticeship in the amateur ranks first.

Obus Pienaar is a good player, hard-hitting batting all-rounder but needs to find his way into a strong Knights batting line-up forst. Was part of the Emerging side recently.

Ackermann in particular scored loads of runs but hasn't been able to kick-on. In fact his fellow player from the same school, same provincial u19 team and same SA u19 side in David White is ahead of him now.

The current SA u19 crop and particularly fast bowlers below have very good pedigree and are playing amateur cricket while still at school. Some players just out of school like Quinton DeKock has a contract with the Lions already and Cloete has a contract with the Knights. Chad Fortune has a rookie with Dolphins and Rafferty & Olivier have rookies with the Knights. Those 3 clubs don't mind giving youth just out of school a chance.

The Cobras, Warriors and Titans are normaly the clubs where you have to do a bit of an apprenticeship in the amateur ranks first.

Thanks. I trust you don't rate Pienaar though. The others who I've heard and noticed have big wraps on them are Rilee Rouss. and Devon Conway. Are they chances to go to the next level?

Doing some reading on SA cricket atm I was a bit surprised by this change but agree that its for the good.
GL to cobras in both domestic and internationals

Couldn't agree more, mate. I thought 45-over cricket was ok which we had for years but the last two seasons we have had 40-over cricket and all sorts of experimentation and its been a bit of a joke really.

Thanks. I trust you don't rate Pienaar though. The others who I've heard and noticed have big wraps on them are Rilee Rouss. and Devon Conway. Are they chances to go to the next level?

Personally don't think Pienaar will play for SA but who knows...could one day play T20.

Rilee Rossouw has all the attacking talent and flare you could want from a young batsman. A bit of a Gibbs like talent or a young AB de Villiers who just back their instict to attack. I do believe he is maturing and will need to and then no doubt he will play for South Africa. He can deflate a bowling attack as he continually will score runs nad hit boundaries if he stays in.

Devon Conway had an amazing junior schoolboy record in Gauteng where he scored something like 24 first-team centuries for his school St Johns. He was scoring double hunderds at junior provincial level. Our ex cricket board president in the 90's, Ray White, dubbed him the best schoolboy batsman since Jacques Henry Kallis and Ford rates him highly and has said he is one of the best young batting talents he has ever seen. Last season was his first full season at franchise level and it was a bit tentative but clearly has the talent and techinique and looks the business and classy but didn't go on and make the runs enough. Big season for him.

Personally don't think Pienaar will play for SA but who knows...could one day play T20.

Rilee Rossouw has all the attacking talent and flare you could want from a young batsman. A bit of a Gibbs like talent or a young AB de Villiers who just back their instict to attack. I do believe he is maturing and will need to and then no doubt he will play for South Africa. He can deflate a bowling attack as he continually will score runs nad hit boundaries if he stays in.

Devon Conway had an amazing junior schoolboy record in Gauteng where he scored something like 24 first-team centuries for his school St Johns. He was scoring double hunderds at junior provincial level. Our ex cricket board president in the 90's, Ray White, dubbed him the best schoolboy batsman since Jacques Henry Kallis and Ford rates him highly and has said he is one of the best young batting talents he has ever seen. Last season was his first full season at franchise level and it was a bit tentative but clearly has the talent and techinique and looks the business and classy but didn't go on and make the runs enough. Big season for him.

Thanks, I noticed that Rossouw scored hugely towards the end of the season, seems to score quickly too.

Suprisingly they didn't give their two spinners in Tshabalala and De Lange contracts. They have signed Friend from the Dolphins so they could go with a 4-prong pace attack. SA U19 batsman, Gihahn Cloete has been given a contract and so has Erlank as a spinner/batsman.

The South African competition looks ridiculously strong, so much talent there that could step up to International level.

Couple of guys I'd like to get your opinion on, if you don't mind. Andrew Birch has a very, very impressive FC record - almost 4 wickets a game at 22 each. Is he that good, or are the stats somewhat misleading?

The other guy, Johannes Bothma, averages about 16 in List A cricket, although his FC record isn't nearly as good. At 23, do you think he has the potential to push for a South African spot in a couple of seasons?

The Lions always have a strong batting line-up and their bowling attack has been very much suited to 4-day cricket where they seem to do very well. There are changes to the fast bowling attack with the promising Gerber back from injury and replacing Friedel De Wet who went Kolpak but also hasn't been the same since injury. SA u19 star, Quinton De Kock has a contract as well.

The South African competition looks ridiculously strong, so much talent there that could step up to International level.

Couple of guys I'd like to get your opinion on, if you don't mind. Andrew Birch has a very, very impressive FC record - almost 4 wickets a game at 22 each. Is he that good, or are the stats somewhat misleading?

The other guy, Johannes Bothma, averages about 16 in List A cricket, although his FC record isn't nearly as good. At 23, do you think he has the potential to push for a South African spot in a couple of seasons?

There are two tiers in SA cricket, franchise and amateur. Because about 7 years ago we decided to go with a strength v strength of 6 teams like Aus, amateur cricket has retained 1st class status so its almost 2nd XI cricket. So some young bolwers have to earn apprenticeship in amateur cricket first and may have low averages to get to franchise cricket.

Birch is a good swing bowler in 4-day cricket and in limited overs cricket does well at the death with a yorker. Recently in the SA 'A' and emerging sides.